Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

If you think I'm appealing to the big, red, lovable Sesame Street character for help, then you haven't heard of the amazing digital projection camera called ELMO. I recently heard of ELMO from a math consultant working with my district and in her words, "Every classroom should have one!" Having recently tried one out, I couldn't agree more. My school is a Title I school in an economically disadvantaged area of my state. Our challenges are many and ELMO is an effective classroom ally. Holding the attention of twenty-five third graders is not an easy task. The ELMO camera allows you to project full color images from any source, be it printed material or three dimensional objects. Sharing a book along with its beautiful illustrations is a breeze with ELMO. It saves time and keeps the kids engaged. There is no stopping to hold up the book and respond to a chorus of “I can’t see!” In addition, demonstrations with manipulatives also become fast and effective. The ELMO allows you to zoom in and out, producing great quality images, even for the back row. There is no need to crowd twenty-five bodies around a small demonstration area, or to repeat the demo over and over for small groups. Another plus, is that while you are using ELMO, you are able to reach auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners while never having to turn your back on the crowd, which means less opportunity to lose your precious audience. Another advantage of ELMO is that teachable moments are multiplied at least ten fold, intensifying the effectiveness of every precious moment. Math and writing are two areas where sharing student work is often a valuable learning experience. Our math program encourages thinking about problem solving in different ways. As the teacher surveys the class and finds examples of different solutions, the next step is to have students copy their work onto the board and share their thinking with the class. Since research has shown that kids really learn best from each other, this step is very effective, however, very time consuming. With ELMO, a student can be the teacher by using ELMO to share his work with the class. There is no need to stop and make overheads, which saves time, money and paper. Likewise, with the writing process, teachers often take student work, make an overhead and do group editing and revising. With ELMO, you have the ability to have students share their work on the spot. Again, the feedback is immediate and students have the opportunity to share and explain their work. When ELMO temporarily arrived in our classroom, my co-teacher and I set it up with great anticipation. We had been told by our math consultant that she loved using ELMO in her classroom and felt that, “Every classroom should have one.” Well, ELMO has lived up to its expectations. With ELMO you can; share print and 3-D materials, hold attention, reach students of various learning styles, turn the student into the teacher and multiply the number of teachable moments tenfold. These characteristics make ELMO worth its weight in gold. For these reasons, I would like to have ELMO as a permanent fixture in my classroom.